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Chapter 1.2
Chapter 1.2
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Numbers in Nature
and the World
Section 1.1 Patterns
Terms of a Sequence
An ordered list of numbers such as 5, 14, 27, 44, 65, ...
is called a sequence. The numbers in a sequence that are
separated by commas are the terms of the sequence.
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Terms of a Sequence
The following table is a difference table for the sequence
5, 14, 27, 44, 65, ...
In this table, the first differences are not all the same. In
such a situation it is often helpful to compute the successive
differences of the first differences. These are shown in row
(2).
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Terms of a Sequence
These differences of the first differences are called the
second differences.
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Example 1 – Predict the Next Term of a Sequence
Solution:
Construct a difference table as shown below.
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Example 1 – Solution cont’d
The third differences, shown in blue in row (3), are all the
same constant, 6. Extending row (3) so that it includes an
additional 6 enables us to predict that the next second
difference will be 36.
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Seatwork
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The Fibonacci Sequence
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The Fibonacci Sequence
Here is a statement of Fibonacci’s rabbit problem.
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The Fibonacci Sequence
The solution of this problem is a sequence of numbers that
we now call the Fibonacci sequence.
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The Fibonacci Sequence
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Leonardo Fibonacci
•Was born in the 12th century, studied a sequence of numbers with a
different type of rule for determining the next number in a sequence.
•He began the sequence with 0,1, ... and then calculated each successive
number from the sum of the previous two.
•The Fibonacci numbers are interesting in that they occur throughout both
nature and art.
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The Fibonacci Sequence
Fibonacci discovered that the number of pairs of rabbits for
any month after the first two months can be determined by
adding the numbers of pairs of rabbits in each of the two
previous months.
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The Fibonacci Sequence
If we use the mathematical notation Fn to represent the nth
Fibonacci number, then the numbers in the Fibonacci
sequence are given by the following recursive definition.
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Example 3 – Find a Fibonacci Number
Use the definition of Fibonacci numbers to find the seventh
and eighth Fibonacci numbers.
Solution:
The first six Fibonacci numbers are 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, and 8. The
seventh Fibonacci number is the sum of the two previous
Fibonacci numbers.
Thus,
F7 = F6 + F5
=8+5
= 13
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Example 3 – Solution cont’d
= 21
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